No Spawn Tonight

The Caribbean was silent this evening.  So far we have reports from Belize, Florida, and Curacao that no spawning took place.  The same is true here in Puerto Morelos.  But that doesn’t mean the night was a waste.  We had a great chance to test the waters, as it were, and practice everything involved with spawning before it actually takes place.  It’s a complicated procedure, and I’ll get into the details tomorrow.

The other important story is that today our equipment finally cleared customs!  Let’s just say that if you ever plan to send something to Mexico as a temporary import, make sure you follow every instruction to the letter.  Otherwise it might take you over a month to get your gear.  At around 2:00PM a large truck arrived bearing our 16 boxes.  Diving was scheduled for 6:00PM, which gave us a four hour window to set up our mobile aquarium unit.

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Here’s Nick plugging something in.  It’s always a struggle not to electrocute ourselves.  Under the safety of the roof we built yesterday, the aquariums were finished in 3 hours–a new record.  That gave Iliana plenty of time to prepare for her dive, but she hung around to help fill up some tanks.

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But even after everything was filled, the unit had to be flushed and refilled and brought to temperature.  It was tough to get things done before the divers returned, but we finished with about ten minutes to spare.  So now we have three separate systems, each maintained at a different temperature, in which to raise our coral larvae when we get them.  Keep your fingers crossed for tomorrow night!

 

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